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Yorkshire Dales Grave Search

Last day of my Spring holiday today and we had a trip out to the Yorkshire Dales in search of more graves. I knew where I needed to go. I had already found some ancestors on the National Burial Index. So we were heading for three specific churches.

First stop was St Andrews at Gargrave. No luck here unfortunately. Managed to speak with the vicar who told me that there was a major clear out of the graveyard back in the 1970’s and 1980’s to make space for new burials. There are no remaining records or details of the removed monumental inscriptions.

St Andrew's, Gargrave

Some of the old headstones had been used to create a memorial footpath. We couldn’t find one for my ancestors. The vicar told me that some of the old headstones were also sold off. Then again there might not have been a headstone in the first place.

So on to St Michael’s and All Angels at Linton. A lovely building dating back to the 12th century. We had more success here. Managed to locate one of the two graves on our list plus another related name.

St Michael's and All Angels, Linton

I have a postcard of the Linton church so this will appear as a future blog post.

Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling very well by this time – perhaps it was too much excitement or the thought of going back to work tomorrow after nearly four weeks off. Anyway we decided to head home and leave the remaining church in Conistone for another week.